COBE to use reddish tones throughout transformation of bremen's harborfront

COBE has broken ground on a new mixed-use development in bremen, a city in northwest germany. the project involves transforming the city’s industrial port into a new district complete with residences, offices, commercial space, and a car park. named ‘europahafenkopf’, the development consists of four buildings, which have been designed to form a new skyline for the city. ‘our vision for the europahafenkopf development is to create a place that celebrates bremen’s historical city core with its unique renaissance buildings and combines it with the silos and warehouses of the industrial port,’ explains dan stubbergaard, founder of COBE. ‘we drew inspiration from the two city quarters in terms of scale, material expression, detailing and design and then reinterpreted these features architecturally.’

all images courtesy of COBE

all four buildings contain a series of halls on the ground floor that welcome passers-by with a wide range of functions, including cafés, shops, galleries, and a street food market. housing and offices will be placed on top of these halls. in developing the project, COBE was inspired by bremen’s historical architecture — evidenced in the form, materiality, and colors of the new buildings.

a series of halls on the ground floor welcome passers-by

the smallest building, mobilitäts haus (mobility house), is a red metal car park where electric vehicles have priority. meanwhile, the office building, zechhaus, is made from red concrete. the two red brick residential towers, lofthaus nord and lofthaus süd (loft building north and loft building south), will contain both owner-occupied apartments and social housing. the project is backed by the gustav zech foundation, who, after realizing the development, will make the site its company headquarters. ‘europahafenkopf’ is scheduled to complete in 2021.

the development  is scheduled to complete in 2021

project info:

location: bremen, germany
client: zech group GmbH
architect: COBE
program: housing, offices, car park, commercial space, urban space
size: 30,000 m2 office; 24,500 m2 owner-occupied flats; 6,700 m2 non-profit housing; 8,000 m2 commercial space; 7,600 m2 car park; total floor space 77,000 m2
idea competition: JES julia erdmann socialtecture
local architect: gildehaus lankenau architekten BDA
municipal planning: BPW baumgart+partner
façade engineer: InFaCon GmbH
electrical engineer: ecotec GmbH
construction engineer: ConcreTec GmbH & co. KG, STB sabotke – timm & partner
mechanical installations: ebert ingenieure GmbH
illustrations: COBE
groundbreaking: february 14, 2019